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Citation for published version (APA): Geoghegan, B. D., & Peters, B. (2014). Cybernetics. In L. Emerson, B. Robertson, & R. Marie-Laure (Eds.), The Johns Hopkins Guide to the Digital Humanities (pp. 109-112). Johns Hopkins University Press.
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Download date: 30. Sep. 2021
Cybernetics Bernard Geoghegan and Benjamin Peters
Cybernetics, like many metadi sciplines, evades easy definition: there may ~ow be as many definition s of cybernetics as-or perhap s mor e than-there are self- 1dnie ntified. cY b e rnet1.c 1an. s. Smee. the m1d-. 194os, its. amalgamat10n. of them es of commu- cation and control in computational biological, social, and symbolic systems has inspired :nd bedeviled researchers across the natura l sciences, social sciences, and humaniti es. tro]ccou nt. s h ave various. ly i.d entifi ed cybernetics as a science of commumcat1on. . and con- a M(~ iener 1948), a universal science (Bowker 1993),an umbr ella disciplin e (Kline , n.d.), i an,chean sci·e nce (Gali.so n 1994, 232), and a scientific farce founded on sloppy ana lo- g I esM oetwecn comput.e rs and. huma n organisms (Pierce 1961, 208 - 227). his IT mathematician Norbert Wiener is oflen cred ited \.Vithl aun chin g the field with I)Ook C f . . . W·"' Y7errietics:Or Control and Communi cc,tion in the Ariinwl a11cllri t' MacJu11r (1948). 1 age"n" <:r I)a sc d c Yb e rnet,.rs on hi s World War. II. resea rch ainwd :-it ·bC' tter int· egrat ·111 g tiL le cy of hurn·an gu nners and analog computers with in ant1·a 1 · rcra ft artill · ery fi re contro I . -h th. adapted wartime resea rch c:>n the feedb..lc.l.: \V" ner an in,-eterare l""'wa - systems. 1e · chi _ . lto >?en<"ralscien«' .:>I.:ommumGtion and ~ h ans and ina nes u ::- C-00.. cesses among um , r m the Greek '"'rd for "steersn1an · (a p~e,_ ...... ·ned the term q'!)<:rn(nw.ITO . - ''--~ trol. He co1 r) to desi!m:ite this new ;.aenee oi 1..-ontrol and ~"--i to the Enolish" term. gowrno. · ks commin!!led- " com pie'.\ nnthenunc1 l anJh--sis. e.nw.""Cl mechanism s. Wieners masterwor .- - . - ..""" . d th t ssociated ,nth :iutomated ma<..huwn . :md >!)e\.'U]a"---- sition on the promise an rea a .. , _ . _ """"' ·1 1· . I d relioiou< nature t" ,ener 1Q-4:S. 19)0 . 1Qt:>4l. The"preh \ 'ntier. of a soc1a po 1t1Ca. an .,. - . . ' d. th description of electronic and digital phenomeUJ. finds its oninus now w1desprea Ill e , in Wiener 's speculath-e efforts in C\·bernetics. . - The Macy Conferences on Cybernetics (19-46-1951). as the,· ~wre infum1alh · known. staked out a still broader interdisciphnar , pur,iew for CYbernet!C research t Pias ~OQ.j). 110 In addition to Wiener. partiopants included neuroph,siologist \Varren McCulloch . who Cybernetics directed the conferences . the mathematician and game theorist John ,-on Neumann. lead ing anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregon Bateson . engineer Claude Shannon. sociologist-statistician Paul Lazarsfeld . as \\ell as psvch1:11rists. pS'<-choanalvsts. and philos ophers . Relying on mathematical and formal definitions of communication . participants rendered permeable the boundaries that d1stmgu1shed humans . machmes . and animals. The language of cybernetic and in format IC analys1s-encod111g . decoding . signal. fe,,d. back. entrap)'. equilibrium. information. communication . control-sustained the analogies between the se ontologicall) distinct classes (Heims 1991). The ·inns1ble college· consti· tuted b)' the Mac)' Conferences prO\·ed immense!) 111fluent1al: von :S:eumann pioneered much of the digital architecture for tl1e computer as \\ ell as Cold \\' ar game theon (Aspra) 1990); Bateson facilitated the adaptation of c,bernetics in anthropolog, · and the Ameri· can counterculture (Turner 20 06); Shann on founded American mformanon theon ~ and Lazarsfeld fashion ed much of the conceptual architecture of postwar communication studies. Although American cybernetics found its roots in military and mdustnal re search . England , France , Chile . and the So,·iet Union sen-ed as home to nbrant and dis tinct schools of cybernetic research , often with a countercultural or soci.:ilist orienrauon (Pickering 2010; Segal 2003 ; Medina 2011; Gerovitch 2002 ). The methodological hallmarks of cybernetics. especiallv human-machin e inrerac· tion and feedback · overlapped wi· th th e fi e Id s o f informati· on' theon · and game theon (Aspray i985) (see GAME THEORY). Mainstream American information theorr. fol]o\\ing Bell Labs. engineer Shannon 's ma th emat1Ca· 1 t h eory of communication. concentrates on the efficient and reliable meas urement an d tran smis sion of data (Shann on 1948) (see fiD ATA).h Von Neumann's. game th eory. m· fluennal . m. eco nomics , developed formal mod e I< - or uman behaV1orbased on stra · d . . . U th teg1C ecis1on-making processe s (Mirowslo :i.002). A ree methods suggested formal s r . . . . . f)eu with h . ystem s ,or des cnbmg communicati\-e acu\'1tles. 0 an emp as1s on promotino t b·1· for d ·b· . . 0 s a I ity or efficiency, and sought formal systems escn mg communicative a · · · . . - three research field .th . ct1V1t1es. \Viener defended the import ance of grouping the;<' s Wl m cybern f d · roUS distinction amono c b . e ICS, an von Neumann did not deplo)' a ngo o Y ernetics !!ame th . f(1)111 the mid- ho '."' eory , and information theory (Kline 2004) · 19505. wever, man y mformati th . b redto the conflation of these fields Sha on ~nsts and game theorists ha,-e o ,ec Literary and cultu I (_ nnon 1956; Pierce 1973). ra studies have d · ed . '-• ttl• In the late 19 os and • . env a vane!) • of inspirations from cvvcrn 4 19 >os Ame ncan m th . . . " tht work of Wiener and Sh . a ematic1an Warren Wea,er . ,, ho o,ersa annon dunng the\ . h to 1111· chrne rransla11on and . h .\oar.argued for appl) mg theu re,eJfC _, t e anal)sis of, - I h 19S isua arts (~ ea,er 194 9). Throughout t e
11 stru ctur al lingui st Roman Jakobson advocated the selective adaptation of cy- d 19605 , . I , ' fj d romot c more rigorou s anu sc1en t1 1c cfinition of langu age (Jak b an uc. s to p a • o son berne His f, icnd and colleag ue , th e h ench anthropologi st Claude Levi-Strau ss . con- ,99o). t tru ctui alism was an "indir ec t outcome" of cybernetic s, information theory dcd t 1, a s . ten e theory. and he saw se miolog y as part of the communication scie nces (Geoghe- and gain · · I d' R I d B h io n). French criu cs, me u mg . o.an .art es. a~d Jea n. Baudr.illard , later adapted 311 g f cybernet ic mod el mg w1thm their sem1ot1c studie s whi le arguing that the ele111ents o ...... ccupat, 011with elimmatmg noi se from commu111cat1ons had a technocratic or fields preo . . . . . p0liticallyco nserva tive pred1spos1t1011. (.Barthe s 1974, 1977.; Baudnllard 198,). Jean-Fran,;ois , essay The Postmodern Cond1t1011,ostensibly a critique of the imbrication of infor- Lyotard s . . . . nd economic terms 111 global capita lism, also deployed and adapted a number of mat1ca Ill cybernetic tropes (Lyotard 1984; Galison 1994; Geoghegan 2011). Cybernetics In the ,98o s Donna Haraway and German hterar y critic Friedrich Kittler developed twocontemporaneous but distinct schoo ls of neo -cybernetic criticism. Harawa y adapted the themes of cybernetic analysis to develop a new and ironic style of feminist critique concerned with the artifa ctual, technical , and hybrid conditions of identity in an age of technoscience (Haraway 2004). Subsequent interest in cyborg studie s wove the inter twined history of cybernetics and science fiction, from Stanley Kubrick 's Dr. Strangelove to The Terminator,into a refreshing critique of contemporary politics, science , gender , and textuality (Gray 1995; Edwards 1996) (see CYBORGAND POSTHUMAN). Even so , re cent historians have noted that only a minor wing of medical cybernetics actually took up the literal fusion of the human and machin e in cyborg research (Kline 2009). In this sense, the legacy of cybernetic human-ma chine int eraction appears to splinter into rich literary specu lation and pragmatic scient ific practice. Roughly contemporaneous with Haraway 's 1980s research, German literary critic Friedrich Kittler, through a some tim es blindingly brilliant antihumanist interpretation of cybernetics and information theory, mobilized the analysis of warfare and communi cations technology as cultural determinants that spearheaded a new schoo l or approach to German media theory (Kittler 1993; Hori 2005) (see H 1sTORY OF COMPUTERS). Like Haraway,Kittl er sought to undermine th e role of the "human" or "spi rit " as an epistemic figure orienting humani stic critique or analysis , an approach that coincided with near disdain toward Anglo-American reflections on gender , politics, and identity . The two subsequen t subfields-variously called cyborg theory and media archaeology laid the foundation for new literary and cultural interrogations of literature , film , media, biology, gender, and other fields displaced and conjoined by shifting technological re· gimes. Since the 1990s, the proliferation of digital media in personal, professional, liter· ary' and ar t.1 st1c· contex ts has prompted major effor ts to reevaluate an d rec 1aim · aspects o f cybernetic ana 1ys1s. · N. Katherine Hayl es's literary analysi s o f cy b emetics· re 1 1·es on wn· t· ers such a B · 1· · · h s ernard Wolfe and Philip K. Dick advancing a cybernetic comp 1C1ty111 t e Postmode d1' . . N Ph' I rn sembod1ment of human subject s (Hayles 1999). Mark Hansen s e1v 1- a~~ophyfor New Media, by contra st, finds in the work of British informati on theorist Don hu MacKay (a partic ipa nt in th e Macy Conferences) resources for affir min g the role of man emb d' · · d h I · 0 im ent 111digit al communi cation s (Han se n 2004). Writers an tee no O· gists alike f . , . i rom Stani slaw Lem to Cory Doctorow to Rodney Brooks have ctted cyberne t- cs as an . A inspiration (Pick ering 20 10, 60 - 69) fr . ny attempt to reco ncile the se leg ion cybernetic und erstanding s would likely be as U1tlessas i . . . . . t wou ld be misg uid ed: like many oth er ambtt1ou s pro1ects, contrad1ct1ons , inconsistencies, paradoxes, and program matic failures have long been hallmarks of bernetics. \Vicne1' s failed attempts t.o improv.e fire control in the 1940s, the MacY Confer cy. ences' failed effort to develop .a u111verI sal sCJe. nce. of fco ntb rol an.d comb mun icatio n i.n the· 0s an 1950s. an t e am 1va ent appropriation o cy emet ics y theorists ever . d d h b 1s94peak to the difficulty- and likely impossibility-of reconciling human s , ani· ma1s s ince
chines, and societies into a consistent, coherent, or unified intellectual program' rna.18 exac. .tl y this disunit. y of definitions, actors, and exegesis that speaks to cyber neti.cs' · coIt tmumg promise for future critical inquiry. n.
• See also ARTIFICIAL LIFE , CRITICAL THEORY, CYBERPUNK, CYBORG
112 AND POSTH U MAN , NETWORKING. Cybernetics References and FurtherReading Aspray, William. 3 _ "The Scientific Conceptualization of Information. " Annals of the Historyof 19 5 Computing7 (2): 117-140. --. 1990. John von Neumann and the Origins of Modern Computing. Cambridge , MA : MIT Press. Barthes, Roland. 1974 . S/Z: An Essay.Transla ted by Richard Miller. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. --. 1977. "Th e Photographic Message." In Image, Music, Text, tra nslate d by Stephen Heath, 15-31.New York: Hill and Wang . Baudr illard, Jean. 1981. "Requiem for the Med ia [1972)." In For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign, tra nslated by Charl es Levin, 214. St. Louis, MO : Telos Press. Bowker, Geof. 1993. "How to Be Universal: Some Cyberneti c Strategies, 1943-7 0 ." Social Studiesof Science2po7-127. Edwards, Paul N. 1996. The ClosedWorld : Computersand the Politics of Discourse in Cold WarAmer· ica. Cambridge , MA: MIT Press. Galison, Peter. 1994. "The Ontology of the Enemy." Critical Inquiry 21:228-268. Geoghega n, Bernard. 2011. "From Information Theory to French Theory: Jakobson, Levi-Strauss, and the Cybernetic Apparatus." Critical Inquiry 38 (1):96. Gerovitch, Slava. 2002. From Newspeakto Cyberspeak:A History of Soviet Cybernetics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Gray, Chr is Hables, ed. 1995. The Cyborg Handbook. London : Rout ledge. Han sen, Mark B. N. 2004 . New Philosophyfor New Media. Cam bridge, MA: MIT Press . Haraway, Donna. 2004 "A Man·1~ t c c b · · · · .. · es O ,or Y orgs: Science, Techno logy, and Socialist Fem1111sm ID the ,98os. In The Haraway Reader, 7- 46. New York: Routled e Hayles, N. Katherine H ~ g · d ,r, . · 1999. · ow e 8 ecame Posthuma»: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literati.re, . an 1»1ormatic s. Chicago: Universi ty of Chic ago Press. Heims, Steve J. ,99 1. The Cybernetics Grou Cambr"d Hori Erich o,· c . . P· 1 ge, MA: M IT Press. ' · 2005 · e ,.1 ei 1•genK ··1 · Ob · r · Diaphanes. ana e. er D,e Archaische Illusion Der Kommunikatio11. Ber ,n.
Jakobson, Roman . 1990 . "Lin uistic . b Linda R Waugh and M . g s and Commun ication T heory." In On Language, edited Y 0 · onique M ·11 B · " 1)' Press. onvi e- urston, 489 - 49 7. Camb rid ge, MA: Harva rd univer,l Kitc!er, Friedrich , .. . 9 5 . · 93- 1gna l-Rausch-Abst d .. 1 . R la111· Kline, Ronald R. 200 4 "WI . an · n Draculas Vermtichtnis, 16 1- 181.L eipzig: ec . · 1,1l 1s Info rma l" Th sc1en· tiscs in the United Slat , . d . . ' ion eory a Theory Of ? Bou nda ry Work among . . es an Bnl am dur' h . " ofSn· entific and Technical lnr, . . lllg 1 e Cold War. " In The History m,rl J-f(.nto o( d ~ormat,on System .. I' d. . , w So)" • Rayward and Mary Ellen s. rocee ings oft lie 2002 Co,ifer(.tlCe, edi ted b) · 0 . . _ 13ow, 1en, _ 3 Cl . · } . d NJ· 111,or mat1on foday. 15 2 · 1em 1c,1 1-len t.ige Fou ndat ion. Medfor · · --. 2o o9 . "Where Are th e c . - d .. y1 >o rgs In Cyberne t. )" S . . 1· 31- 362- . n. · Cybernetics in C · .· .. . . Ics. octal Sti11lies ofSci(.t1ce 39 U · 3 . l e . d n s1s. Rcv1v111g . d R . . 1· ,n 11 Un ite States." Unpub l" ·h d '111 e111vent inn a Pos twar Int erd isc1p 111e L o is e paper. " . y lard , Jean-Francois. 1984. The I' t d b)' Geoffrey Benningt on and B . os modern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Tran slate n an Massumi M. . ·s · mn eapoh s: Univ ers ity of Minn eso ta pres · Fd n 20 11. Cybernetic RevoluLlonaries: Technology and Pol't . . Medina, e i ics in Allende's Chile.Cambr" d \ ~11T Ptr • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •